The Last Full Measure

[silverscreenselect]

Mrs. SSS and I went to see The Last Full Measure over the weekend. It's in limited release (meaning that it's playing in a handful of theaters in major cities), but it may open wider in the next week or two. It's an excellently acted movie about a Vietnam War hero and, more generally, the effects of the war on soldiers and family members. It's the story of William Pitzenbarger, an Air Force pararescue medic, who was killed in one of the bloodiest small-scale battles of the war in 1966. He helped evacuate several dozen wounded soldiers during the battle and when his helicopter left, he insisted on staying behind to tend to additional wounded and eventually joined the combat. The survivors of the battle recommended him for the Medal of Honor but he was awarded the Air Force Cross instead. However, they kept up their efforts for decades, and he was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor in 2000.

The film has a fairly accurate portrayal of the battle (taking into a count a low budget), but it highly fictionalizes the efforts to get Pitzenbarger the Medal by creating a fictional defense department attorney who takes up his case in 1998. In the movie, there are hints of a government cover-up to make things more dramatic. The real strength of the film, however, is in the depiction of the troops who are still affected by the battle 30 years later. There's an excellent supporting cast including William Hurt, Christopher Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Diane Ladd, and Peter Fonda (his last film and one of his best performances). Those scenes are powerful and occasionally gut wrenching.

Although I'm disappointed that they had to Hollywoodize a powerful true story to make it more "cinematic," it's still well worth seeing.